Arsenal head coach Renée Slegers has insisted the goals ‘will come’ after her side were held to a 0-0 draw with Manchester United on Saturday afternoon.
Manchester United were forced to play most of the second half with ten players after Jayde Riviere was sent off for a second yellow card. Arsenal huffed and puffed but were unable to break the visiting side down despite their numerical advantage.
Renée Slegers spoke to the media following the encounter in North London and The Halfway Line was there to hear from her.
United draw is ‘100%’ an opportunity missed says Slegers
On Saturday afternoon Arsenal had 25 shots to United’s four, three big chances to United’s one and had eight times as many touches in the opposition box as the visitors. Renée Slegers was asked by Tim Stillman of Arseblog News whether this was an opportunity missed,
“Yeah, 100%” Slegers replied without missing a beat.
“I think the way we dominate the game, apart from the early chance with [Fridolina] Rolfö, of course, I think in a lot of parts of the game we were excellent, because it’s a really good opponent.
“They like to be really intense [and] aggressive in the press, I think we pacified that really well, we took that away from their game.
“We had to match them in the physicality of the game, the duels, the first, second balls. We did that well as well, and especially in midfield and our centre backs and in the back line.
“And so that was all positive. So there’s a lot of positives in the in the performance. 0-0 away against United, 0-0 today, against United I think there’s a lot of progression in the performance today.
“We have a lot more shots created and a lot more entries into the box. But unfortunately, we didn’t get the ball into the net today so it feels like two lost points.”
When asked to expand further Slegers considered,
“I think we are really good and disciplined” Slegers replied.
“We do things together. We are connected. There’s high cohesion. Players are playing their roles. We create from turnovers. We go forward. We’re creating set pieces.
“I think our the game craft was good today as well, how we deal with different moments in the game, but unfortunately the ball needs to go in and that didn’t happen today.”
The goals ‘will come’ asserts Slegers
While Arsenal had 25 shots on goal, only six of those were on target, representing a familiar issue for Arsenal today who succumb to their third goalless draw of this WSL season on Saturday. Slegers sought to explain the difficult finding the back of the net,
“The quality of how we set the player up to get a clear shot, the angle of the shot but then the actual shot as well” Slegers explained.
“So I think that’s what we just discussed. I think that we could have done better, because there’s around 25 shots, I think we often aim to be around 40 to 50% on target, and we’re not close at all [to that target].
“So I think a lot goes off target today as well. But as I said, it’s a team performance, so all looking at it and all reviewing it but we keep on believing that the goals will come, because we’ve shown that before how [many] good finishers we have in the team, and how we can set up really good attacks. So it will come.”
Renée Slegers focusing on the ‘quality we have already’ in Arsenal ranks
Should Manchester City beat Everton at home tomorrow Arsenal will find themselves beyond the halfway mark in the season 10 points off the summit. Slegers was asked if Arsenal are still in the title race,
“Well, we make it harder for ourselves with this result we wanted, [we] needed three points today” Slegers replied.
“So that’s two points lost for us. So we make it harder. Absolutely there is still games left to play tomorrow, so we’ll see the results in those games, that’s outside of our control.
“But as long as it’s possible, we keep on chasing and we are looking to climb the table.”
Slegers also commented on whether more additions are needed in the squad for Arsenal this window,
“I’m really happy with the squad” Slegers affirmed.
“Of course, we have Leah [Williamson] coming back in now as well, after injury, Daph [Daphne van Domselaar] is very close. Smilla [Holmberg] has come in and added some new qualities.
“Chloe [Kelly], hopefully doesn’t take too long before she’s back either. So there is players coming back, so I don’t think we necessarily have to.
“We will be active in the in the window. We will stay and look at what’s happening and what we can do, and we’re always planning windows ahead, but yeah, it’s obviously open at the moment.
“But yeah, I want to have a look or focus on the squad that we have right now, and the players coming back, and the quality that we have already. So I think we have high quality players in the squad.”
